2 Non-formal Education
Non-formal education is opposite of formal education system. In this type of education system, teaching is carried out in an organized and systematic manner, however outside the formal four walls of a university or college.
It is given to a group of farmers on a specific topic as per farming community needs. In non-formal education system of agriculture extension, farmer literacy campaigns are well known that are practiced widely. The teaching services are provided by the agriculture extension office.
Characteristics: Some important characteristics of this type of education system includes; it does not require four walls and farmer fields are in fact classrooms for farmers while, agriculture extension worker is the teacher. There is no particular syllabus and farming community problems are the subject matter of non-formal education. No strict schedule is followed and there is no hard and fast rule for attendance, as it is not compulsory. The audience is heterogeneous (of any age) and there is no admission on examination needed. Lastly, this type of education is not given for degree or diploma purpose.
3 Informal Education
Adams (1988) in its book titled ‘Agricultural Extension in Developing Countries’ define informal education as
Lifelong process by which every person acquires and accumulates knowledge, skills, attitudes and insight from daily experiences and exposure to the environment
This definition clears the fact that informal education is acquired by one’s own experience and learning from other’s experience. There is no role of agriculture extension services provided by the agriculture extension office or department.
Characteristics: Informal education is acquired through sociological experiences. It also includes the farming tricks and procedures learned from ancestors that transfer from generations to generations. Farmer also learns from the experience of neighboring farmer such as application of new technique in farming operations or implementation of technology. Another source of informal education is the farmer socialization i.e. when farmers gather for a special event or may be for some casual event, they share experiences.
Cite this Article in APA Style as:
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, October 09). Concept of Education in Agriculture Extension[Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/10/09/concept-education-agriculture-extension[/box]